Two of the cops fired over the arrest of black man George Floyd have already been investigated for their roles in previous use-of-force incidents, it’s been revealed.
Derek Chauvin, 44, the officer filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck during his arrest, is a 19-year veteran of the force who was investigated over a fatal police shooting in 2006.
Floyd died Monday in police custody, hours after footage showed Minneapolis cop Chauvin knelt on him for eight minutes during the arrest for forgery.
Now it’s been revealed Chauvin was investigated for his role in the 2008 shooting of Ira Latrell Toles during a domestic assault call. Toles was wounded after police said he went for an officer’s gun and Chauvin shot him.
Two years earlier Wayne Reyes, 42 was killed by officers after allegedly pulling a shotgun on the six cops, which included Chauvin, The Star Tribune reports.
A second officer involved in Monday’s arrest, Tou Thao, is said to been part of a $25,000 out of court settlement after being sued for using excessive force in 2017.
In a lawsuit obtained by the DailyMail.com shows Thao was sued for using excessive force in arrest where he was accused of punching and kicking a handcuffed suspect ‘until his teeth broke’.
Derek Chauvin, 44, the officer filmed kneeling Floyd’s neck during his arrest, is a 19-year veteran of the force who was investigated over a fatal police shooting in 2006
A second officer involved in Monday’s arrest, Tou Thao, is said to been part of a $25,000 out of court settlement after being sued for using excessive force in 2017
George Floyd died Monday in police custody, hours after footage showed Minneapolis cop Chauvin knelt on him for eight minutes during the arrest for forgery
CBS Minnesota later named the remaining two officers as Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng
The second officer, Thao, was sued in 2017 by Lamar Ferguson who said the cop had used excessive force during his arrest.
A lawsuit obtained by DailMail.com states ‘Defendant Thunder and Defendant Thao’s use of unreasonable force on Plaintiff, in the form of punches, kicks, and knees to the face and body while Plaintiff was defenseless and handcuffed, was so extreme that it caused Plaintiff to suffer broken teeth as well as other bruising and trauma.’
The case was settled out of court for $25,000 after Thao said he had punched Ferguson after he ‘actively resisted arrest’.
He wrote: ‘After — at this point he’s actively resisting arrest. He — so I had no choice but to punch him. I punched him in the face.’
All four officers – who have not been officially identified – involved in Monday’s incident were fired Tuesday. DailyMail.com has contacted Minneapolis police for comment and for the officer’s full records with the department.
Chauvin is said to be represented by lawyer Tom Kelly. He was Jeronimo Yavez’ attorney after the Minnesota police officer fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in 2016.
Yavez was found not guilty on all three charges by a jury in 2017.
Only Chauvin and Thao had been named in reports; the remaining two officers were later identified by CBS Minnesota as Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng.
The FBI and state law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into the man’s death.
Minneapolis cops in riot gear last night fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of defiant protesters who took to the streets to demand justice for Floyd.
The victim’s heartbroken family have called for the cops to be charged with murder.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Tuesday that four officers are now ‘former employees’ of the force.
‘We know there are inherent dangers in the profession of policing but the vast majority of the work we do never require the use of force,’ Arradondo said.
Floyd’s death has caused outrage across America with political figures and celebrities including Cardi B, P Diddy and Demi Lovato voicing their anger.
Floyd worked as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro, a local bistro in Minneapolis. The bar’s owners have described him as a ‘very calm, nice guy’ who was not the type to be ‘aggressive’ or ‘disrespectful’.
Floyd was filmed Monday begging the Minneapolis cop to stop and telling him he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and later died
The FBI and state law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into the man’s death
New video sent to us shows the moment George Floyd was removed from his vehicle and handcuffed on 38th and Chicago.
Video courtesy of Christopher Belfrey pic.twitter.com/MiIIula4sA— Alex Lehnert (@AlexLehnertFox9) May 26, 2020
The man, unresponsive and handcuffed, is then placed on a stretcher before being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died shortly after
Parallels have already been drawn between the two cases but Crump described Floyd’s death as even ‘worse’
Ben Crump, the attorney for the victim’s family has demanded officers face murder charges over the killing and said this is ‘worse than Eric Garner’ because the officers held Floyd down by the neck for eight minutes.
Crump pointed to the similarities in the case with the death of unarmed black man Garner who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by New York City police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe.
Parallels have already been drawn between the two cases but Crump described Floyd’s death as even ‘worse’.
‘I mean it was eight minutes. It is in many ways worse than Eric Garner as they have his knees on his neck and he is begging, pleading for not one minute, not two minutes, not three minutes but eight minutes – begging them to let him breathe so we have ‘we can’t breathe’ again in 2020,’ he said.
‘I think the officer should be charged with murder,’ Crump told TMX.news, about Derek Chauvin, who has been identified as the cop who held Floyd down by the neck.
‘It was clear that he was begged by public bystanders to take his knee off George’s neck.’
People were packed in for the rally Tuesday which began peacefully but descended into carnage later in the day
Others held up banners saying ‘I can’t breathe’ as they demanded an end to police brutality against African-American men
A man holds a ‘Stop Killing Black People’ placard while protesting near the area where a Minneapolis Police Department officer allegedly killed George Floyd
Shocking images emerged of people dousing their faces in milk in desperate efforts to limit the effects of the tear gas hurled at them by police
Eric Garner’s mother says video of George Floyd saying ‘I can’t breathe’ as white cop kneels on his neck before he died is a ‘recurring nightmare’
The mother of Eric Garner says the video of George Floyd saying ‘I can’t breathe’ as white cop kneels on his neck before he died is a ‘recurring nightmare’.
Gwen Carr, whose 27-year-old son died after he was placed in an apparent chokehold by a NYPD officer, said she could barely stomach watching the video of Floyd.
The 46,-year-old was filmed passing out on the ground on Monday after four officers arrested him for allegedly trying to use forged documents at a local deli.
Floyd later died in hospital in an incident that is now under investigation by the FBI and has triggered a national outcry, with thousands of protesters to taking to the streets in anger.
‘It was déjà vu all over again,’ Carr told NBC. ‘It’s like a reoccurring nightmare,’ she said.
Gwen Carr (center), the mother of Eric Garner has been left horrified by the harrowing video of an unarmed black man crying ‘I can’t breathe’ while being pinned down by a white cop in Minneapolis – a case bearing a striking resemblance to her son’s 2014 death in Staten Island
Carr, whose 27-year-old son (right) died after he was placed in an apparent chokehold by a NYPD officer, said she could barely stomach watching the video of George Floyd, 46, who was filmed passing out on the ground on Monday after four officers arrested him for allegedly trying to use forged documents at a local deli.
Garner, a father-of-six, had made the same pleas to plainclothes NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo six years ago, telling him on 11 separate occasions ‘I can’t breathe’, as Pantaleo pulled him by the neck with his forearm onto the sidewalk.
The words would prove to be Garner’s last. He later died in hospital, having suffered an asthma attack and gone into cardiac arrest while being restrained. The city’s medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, with the chokehold deemed a ‘significant factor’ in his passing.
Nationwide protests broke out after a grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. The 27-year-old had been accused of selling loose untaxed cigarettes in the moments leading up to the incident.
In Floyd’s case, newly emerged video shows him being manhandled and forcibly removed from his vehicle by two officers as he is placed in handcuffs outside of Cup Foods grocery store on 38th and Chicago Ave.
Carr said the news of Floyd’s death has forced her to relieve the searing pain of her son’s similar and brutal demise.
‘It was just like me reliving my son’s murder all over again,’ Carr told PIX11. ‘It’s just so horrifying how these police officers come into our neighborhoods and terrorize and brutalize.’
‘Tears are in my eyes because it’s like it’s happening to me again and again. Why does this keep on happening over and over again?’
Carr added that she cannot see ‘any justification’ for the force used by the officers. ‘To put your knee on someone’s neck, you are obstructing their breathing. That is completely a no-no,’ she told NBC.
‘Why would you keep your knee there?’ she asked, insisting that Floyd clearly needed help. ‘After three minutes, you don’t realize that this man is saying that he can’t breathe? And he’s struggling, struggling for life?’
‘Why would you keep your knee there?’ Carr asked, insisting that Floyd clearly needed help. ‘After three minutes, you don’t realize that this man is saying that he can’t breathe? And he’s struggling, struggling for life?’
None of the officers involved in Garner’s death were ever criminally prosecuted. Carr said she’s wary of the FBI’s assistance in the Minneapolis investigation after Attorney General William Barr made the final determination last summer not to charge Pantaleo, citing insufficient evidence.
Pantaleo was, however, eventually fired by the NYPD in August 2019. He filed a lawsuit against the city last fall, calling his termination ‘arbitrary and capricious’.
While Minneapolis has moved much more quickly to fire the officers who contributed to Floyd’s death, Carr said she hopes his surviving family members attain justice much sooner than she did.
‘I hope this family doesn’t need to suffer like I suffered for six years,’ she said.
Reporting By Luke Kenton for DailyMail.com
Crump also called for the other officers involved to be charged as accomplices to murder.
‘They were supposed to protect and serve citizens like George. We in black America, we are done dying at the hands of the people that are supposed to protect and serve us,’ he said.
‘Please, please, please, I can’t breathe. Please, man,’ Floyd, who is shirtless, begs the cop.
The officer repeatedly tells him ‘Well get up and get in the car then,’ while he continues to pin Floyd to the ground.
Floyd responds ‘I will’ but the cop continues to hold him to the ground by his neck.
‘My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts,’ Floyd is heard gasping at one point, before saying he needs water.
After several minutes, one of the officers tells him to ‘relax.’
‘Man, I can’t breathe,’ Floyd responds, before eventually passing out.
An ambulance then arrives and police officers move the man’s limp body onto a stretcher.
In the footage, shared by onlooker Darnella Frazier, multiple witnesses were also heard arguing with the two cops over their excessive use of force.
New video footage also shows the moment Floyd was pulled from his car by police.
Cops were reported to have located Floyd, who was suspected of forgery, in his car around 8pm before ordering him to exit the vehicle, according to a police statement. A spokesman alleged Floyd got out of the car before ‘physically resisting officers’.
Police are pictured in riot gear at the rally. The protest in the streets of Minneapolis over his death descended into chaos Tuesday night
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis and surrounded a police precinct Tuesday night, after a video emerged of a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes until he passed out and later died during an arrest for forgery
However, new video footage, obtained by FOX 9, has shed light on the moments leading up to Floyd’s arrest, showing two officers manhandling and forcibly removing him from his car as he is placed in handcuffs outside the Cup Foods grocery store on 38th and Chicago Ave in south Minneapolis.
Floyd appears to be complying with officers and not resisting arrest before an altercation ensues.
Additional CCTV footage obtained by CBS News has also emerged from a nearby restaurant showing parts of the altercation between Floyd and officers on the sidewalk.
The new videos have shed light on the events leading up to Floyd’s death. In the CCTV footage from a restaurant, a handcuffed Floyd is seen sitting on the ground as a police officer, who was not seen in the original viral video, speaks to him before picking him up and holding him against the wall.
Another police officer then comes over and helps escort Floyd to a nearby squad car before the clip ends.
The events to follow were then captured in a separate video widely shared on Tuesday, which showed Floyd pleading with the cop to stop, saying ‘please, please, I can’t breathe’ and ‘My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts’, as he is pinned to the ground.
EXCLUSIVE: George Floyd was a standout on his Texas high school football team and rapper who worked with legendary Houston musician, as his ex-girlfriend says he was loving father to their young daughter
By Josh Boswell For Dailymail.com
George Floyd was not only a rapper who recorded music with the late influential hip hop artist DJ Screw and a star football player for his Texas high school team, but a father of two young girls, including a six-year-old, who he now leaves behind.
The 46-year-old leaves behind two daughters, including six-year-old Gianna Floyd who lives with her mother Roxie Washington in Floyd’s former hometown of Houston.
Washington told the Houston Chronicle her ex was a ‘gentle giant’.
‘People mistake him because he was so big that they thought he was always a fighting person but he was a loving person,’ she said. ‘And he loved his daughter.’
George Floyd (pictured in the 1990s, in jersey 88) was not only a rapper who recorded music with the late influential hip hop artist DJ Screw and a star football player for his Texas high school team, but a father of two young girls, who he now leaves behind. Floyd was loved by many on the football team at Jack Yates High School in Houston where he played wide receiver. A fellow teammate tweeted his sadness and anger when he learned of Floyd’s death
Floyd leaves behind two daughters, including six-year-old Gianna Floyd who lives with her mother, Roxie Washington (pictured all together), in Floyd’s former hometown of Houston. Washington told the Houston Chronicle her ex was a ‘gentle giant’
‘I don’t even have words for it,’ Washington, 38, told the paper. ‘It’s cruel. They took him away from my daughter. She’ll never see her father again.’
In an interview with CBS This Morning, Floyd’s cousin said his daughter is ‘not doing well’ after learning of her father’s untimely death.
Washington, who attended a 100-strong protest in Houston after Floyd’s death, said he was born in North Carolina and moved to the city’s third ward as a baby.
Floyd was loved by many on the football team at Jack Yates High School in Houston where he played wide receiver in the 1990s.
A fellow teammate tweeted his sadness and anger when he learned of Floyd’s death.
He wrote: ‘We played together on the same summer league team (after our freshman year) in the BCI league.
‘Floyd was a cool dude. Hate to hear that he passed. Now I’m just realizing that Floyd is the guy killed by police. I hope the officer who did this meets the same fate. That would be justice.’
Archive footage from 1992 shows Floyd scoring a dramatic touchdown at one of the Yates games.
The school’s coach, M.J. Hickey Jr, posted a photo on Twitter of the late player with his team and the caption ‘#88 #RIPGeorgeFloyd’.
‘I don’t even have words for it,’ Washington (left with Floyd center), 38, told the paper. ‘It’s cruel. They took him away from my daughter. She’ll never see her father again.’
Washington, who attended a 100-strong protest in Houston after Floyd’s death, said he was born in North Carolina and moved to the city’s third ward as a baby
Fans of revered hip hop artist DJ Screw (pictured) celebrated Floyd’s musical career by sharing links of tracks he recorded under his rapping name ‘Big Floyd’ alongside the legendary Houston musician. DJ Screw, whose real name was Robert Earl Davis Jr, died in 2000 of a drug overdose after releasing 35 mixtapes. The rapper was posthumously made an official Texas Music Pioneer by Governor Rick Perry
Washington said Floyd received a basketball scholarship from Florida State University, but returned to Houston before he finished college and began making music.
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson posted on social media calling Floyd his ‘twin’, as the two men played on both the Yates football and basketball team and grew up in Houston’s third ward.
‘U will know who Floyd was,’ Jackson’s Instagram post said. ‘Nobodies perfect but Floyd was loved by everybody when he’s friends wasn’t. Just the facts u gotta be from HTown to know what I’m saying. Rest Easy Twin we riding for ya.’
Fans of revered hip hop artist DJ Screw celebrated Floyd’s musical career by sharing links of tracks he recorded under his rapping name ‘Big Floyd’ alongside the legendary Houston musician.
DJ Screw, whose real name was Robert Earl Davis Jr, died in 2000 of a drug overdose after releasing 35 mixtapes. The rapper was posthumously made an official Texas Music Pioneer by Governor Rick Perry.
‘He’s on countless Screw tapes. RIP to a legend,’ one fan tweeted Wednesday.
Floyd worked as a security guard after moving to Minneapolis around 2018, Washington said.
Floyd worked first as a truck driver and then as a security guard at Minneapolis restaurant Conga Latin Bistro.
Another police officer then comes over and helps escort Floyd to a nearby police car before the clip ends.
The events to follow were then captured in a separate video widely shared on Tuesday, which showed Floyd pleading with the cop to stop, saying ‘please, please, I can’t breathe’ and ‘My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts’, as he is pinned to the ground.
Witnesses at the scene were heard urging the arresting officers to stop, with one pointing out that Floyd was not resisting arrest.
On Wednesday, Ben Crump, the attorney representing Floyd’s family, said without video footage of the incident, he believes police ‘would have given a false narrative and they would’ve swept it under the rug,’ he told Today.
An initial statement released by the Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday did not include details of officers’ altercation with Floyd and only mentioned he had suffered ‘medical distress’ following the arrest.
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson (right) posted on social media calling Floyd (left) his ‘twin’, as the two men played on both the Yates football and basketball team and grew up in Houston’s third ward